1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method of searching for data related to events beyond the capabilities of current search mechanisms, wherein particular scenarios are examined when a group of users jointly witness an event and devices associated with users of the group record information from the same event.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today, users carry mobile devices or other devices that are capable of capturing data associated with events in different modalities, at all times. Based on context data or user cues that act as triggers, the user's mobile device may record an event that can be unimodal. For example, the user's mobile device may record an event in a plain audio format or in a multimedia format, such as video, audio and/or still pictures. The mobile device stores the recording along with the context data that characterized the event. The context data could be, for example, the location, time, date of recording, and a corresponding calendar entry for the event. Environmental data may also be simultaneously recorded with the event data and the content data. For example, environmental data may include a stadium name and location where the event occurred. The context data and environment data form a part of the metadata for the event. Thus, if a group of people attended the same event, the mobile device for each person in the group would have a different recording of the same event. The recordings for the group could be connected to each other through their metadata, amongst other information.
Although many context aware systems have been developed, especially for mobile devices, where proximity to users allows for collecting more reliable context data, these systems suffer from a lack of interoperability, complexity and experience adaptation difficulties. There are currently no frameworks that are interoperable, that are able to handle the complexity associated with searching content and environmental data associated with an event, and that are easily adaptable. With advanced mobile capability, recording of every day events in multiple formats is a reality. It is, therefore, imperative to provide a highly adaptive and intuitive framework linking multiple events for searches.